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The Car Thread


MadManMike

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Can someone who knows more than me and is less close to throwing all their toys out the pram do me a favour?

I've just completely f**ked the o/s rear hub on a E39 540i BMW and need another one. There's lots of E39 hubs on eBay, but I don't know whether the 540i one differs from the rest. HELP!

For anyone who wants to know, I got impatient and did a less than perfect job of drilling out the snapped bolt. Yep, I ended up drilling straight through the threads... This is why I work in an office.

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He will and is going to tomorrow via next day delivery ;)

Edit; In order to keep things together I now need to find a way of fitting the ARB, as my front coilovers don't have droplink mounts. Am I right in thinking that I could weld a boss on to the new cast arms and mount much like the current setup, or am I going to have to try and get hold of some LCR front struts and links (or at least get some form of mount made up to fit)? Open to other info if there's a known workaround.

Something like this could do the trick, though would need to put a rubber insert in there (bit of inner tube maybe) so as not to kill the adjustment threads:


blog_45283-swaybarbrkts.jpg?5061

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Luke, welding to them wouldn't be ideal if they really are cast, if they're forged then it'll more than likely be alright though. (Easiest way to tell's the 'seam' down the side, on cast parts it'll be very thin, just a little line like on plastic moulded stuff that's not been cleaned up. On forged stuff it'll be a fairly thick scruffy stripe rather than a neat line, I've got an old one of Nicks I'll check if I can dig it out.)

Jardo, I'm guessing you're sorted for LCR lower arms? In a previous post you mentioned wanting to fit 'caster increasing/correcting (can't remember which word you used) hubs'. When it's the lower arms that give the caster. The hubs help by improving the roll center position as well as helping with bump steer, while the lower arms give the caster. (It was probably a typo, just making sure it's all clear in case it wasn't).

Finally got around to sorting my rear light wiring out earlier. A previous owner had butchered it with chocolate blocks to add a 3rd brake light, as well as for some reason re-routing the fogs wiring for no apparent reason and removing the wiring from the left one. (From the factory the left ones blanked off, but the bulb holder and wiring's there, there's just a blanking plate in the back of the reflector.) I soldered it all up and heat shrinked it so now my right brake light doesn't occasionally decided not to work, and my right sidelight doesn't flash while indicating! Plus while I was there I removed the blank and added a second fog lamp bulb, yay, symmetry! Just need to chase why my reversing lights aren't working now, but that turned out not to be an issue at the back, so I'll have to chase the feed to it and check the switch.

JD, if you've only removed the threads and not too much metal around them then you could always helicoil the hole, should cost sod all from any decent engineering place if you explain the situation.

Edited by RobinJI
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Cheers Robin. I definitely managed to eat into the hub enough! Being as I was going to have to take it off anyway, I just ordered a hub & driveshaft assembly off eBay last night. It seemed easier to do it that way than faff about with removing the shaft from the hub - apparently needs a special tool and the difference in price was negligible. However, I decided to have a go at dismantling it all this evening and can't get anywhere near enough torque onto the bolts holding the driveshaft to the diff :(

Don't have a breaker bar - is that the route to go down? Earlier chat in here about impact wrenches didn't fill me with confidence, although they might make up for my weediness...

Edited by JD™
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I don't know if this will mean anything to people on here except Jardo and maybe Tarty... But I accidentally an RS2 for my Clio.

Also, is anyone going to SRR on Saturday? I'll be going down for a couple of 'before' runs.

Oh my.

Beautiful bits of kit, which coil pack holder did you go with? Are you going to run a sock filter or the cone behind the light?

-

After a bit of a clean up, I have a sub 9 set of brakes.

With EBC Ultimax slotted discs and Mintex M1177 race pads. Cheers Prawn!

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Oh my.

Beautiful bits of kit, which coil pack holder did you go with? Are you going to run a sock filter or the cone behind the light?

Second hand so it's a plonk it on top job.It'll be the sock in front of the battery affair.

I'm going to SRR for a 'before' run on Saturday, then I'll be fitting it myself some time in the next month, along with the decat, then handing back to James & MWM for a proper map and new rolling road readout from SRR.

I feel stupid for spending so much money on a Clio but it's too much fun and I couldn't bare the fuel, tyre, service costs of something like an Evo, etc.

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I wish I had of spent my money on my Clio. Instead of my A3.

There we go; I've said it.

:(

Expect 195 ish; unless you have cammage?

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More pictures. Sorry guys.

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Cheeky snap from this morning.

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I. Want. Brakes!

So far today i've picked up the brakes, robbed a set of mounts off a friend, ordered 1kg of Polytek 85 pourable polyeurathane.

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Properly a question for prawn, thinking of keeping my eyes out for an A3.

would have to be a soot chucker for the amount of miles i do, and not really looking for a quick car.

Question is, is it easy to come across uprated suspension, as i dont know if the diesels run the same suspension as the petrols.

Cheers

#don'tforgetaboutme

VAG use the same platform for diesel and petrol cars, even the same shell for AWD and 2WD cars. EVERY chassis upgrade for a petrol A3 will be transferable for the diesel variant with both the 8L (our shape) and 8P new shape.

Which shape/age are you looking for? Both are the same either way.

AP are a great brand at the moment for coilovers.

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I'd double check the result people have been having just to be sure mind - they're the same fitment but spring rates may be a little different. I'm not too sure what the difference in engine weight is like between a 1.8t and the diesel blocks, though I seem to recall them being similar which would make it really straightforward (see next point...!)

A quick one on that note to say that if you do get yourself an a3 and want to put it on coilovers, let me know. I've had some on my car for around 6 months (Leon = Mk4 = A3 etc) but could really do with changing them for LCR ones for the strut mounted droplinks.

Could sell you mine so you save a little money on going new (they have 18 months warranty left) and means I'm only paying to upgrade rather than for a full new set making the old ones redundant :)

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By all means ignore me, but at I guess I'd say you'd be best looking at the Leon Cupra TDI? I fancied one for a while.

Talking to me?

#don'tforgetaboutme

VAG use the same platform for diesel and petrol cars, even the same shell for AWD and 2WD cars. EVERY chassis upgrade for a petrol A3 will be transferable for the diesel variant with both the 8L (our shape) and 8P new shape.

Which shape/age are you looking for? Both are the same either way.

AP are a great brand at the moment for coilovers.

Thats the main thing i wanted to check, alot of the drivetrain for my citroen is different to the petrol version. (driveshafts, brakes, springs).

Not bothered on shape, to be honest just looking for something that is tidyier than what im driving and has a bit more poke. I drove my mates 1.9tdi a while ago, and remember short shifting from 2nd to 5th, and after a couple of seconds it got on the turbo and pulled like a train.

I'd double check the result people have been having just to be sure mind - they're the same fitment but spring rates may be a little different. I'm not too sure what the difference in engine weight is like between a 1.8t and the diesel blocks, though I seem to recall them being similar which would make it really straightforward (see next point...!)

A quick one on that note to say that if you do get yourself an a3 and want to put it on coilovers, let me know. I've had some on my car for around 6 months (Leon = Mk4 = A3 etc) but could really do with changing them for LCR ones for the strut mounted droplinks.

Could sell you mine so you save a little money on going new (they have 18 months warranty left) and means I'm only paying to upgrade rather than for a full new set making the old ones redundant :)

Not too fused on having the correct spring rate to be honest. I used to drive a classic mini, im used to discomfort ;)

Like i said, driven an A3 before, the only gripe i had was the amount of body roll. would only really be looking to slap on a set of tidy alloys, drop it 30mm ish and reduce the body roll.

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In that case give me a shout when you find one that fits the bill and I shall hook you up with a 30mm drop and some reduced body roll ;)

Edit; Just checked and it seems most places advertise these coilies (and most others) as being fine for pretty much all engines, including the 1.8t and the 1.9TDI (Y)

Because the mk4 platform is so widely used (mk4 Golfs, A3s, Leons, Octavias, Beetle...) coming across parts and upgrades is phenomenally easy. You should clearly buy my suspension though because not only is it cheaper than buying new, I've also tested it works for you :P

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